Conventional camcorders use a variety of disk formats such as digital video cassettes, mini-DV cassettes and DVD-R discs that offer a limited amount of memory to store data. One of the major shortcomings of the existing camcorder technology is that the memory runs out too soon. How many times does one hear, “I have no tape left” while recording? Once a portion of the memory has been recorded, there is less memory available for further recording. Then when the memory is full, users have to return to their home/work computer or media station to transfer the recorded data from the camera to free up the memory. This creates inconvenience and inflexibility for recording on the go.
One solution is the technology of loop recording in which the camera is constantly recording. When it reaches the end of the memory it records from the beginning, erasing the earliest recorded data. Such technology is often employed with surveillance cameras for long and continuous recording without much or any supervision. However, the problem with such loop recording is that it will not distinguish or differentiate any data that is of importance. The user then will have to transfer the interested data to another storage media by stopping the recording and storing the interested data onto another medium, or risk having the interested data be recorded over during loop recording.
Many surveillance recordings employ larger memory units to solve this problem. This then creates unnecessary long recordings that are not relevant or present any interest to the user. The portions of the interested data not only take up available memory for further recording but the entire loop has to be reviewed in order to select the most relevant portion. Again, this creates inconvenience and inflexibility for recording on the go.
Furthermore, users of the surveillance camera are not able to edit a given potion on the fly without stopping and replaying the image. The user must focus his or her attention on the viewfinder or display screen to keep the subject properly framed. This seriously hinders the operator's live enjoyment of the event being recorded since their attention is on the recording device and is not immersed in the sights and sounds of the event.
Thus, there is still a need for a camera that provides better recording and editing functions.
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